Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb during his visit to Delhi on Wednesday called on three Union Ministers including Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of State for Power RK Singh and Union Health Minister JP Nadda.

In his meeting with the HRD Minister, the Tripura Chief Minister raised the issue of establishment of 2 new Kendriya Vidyalayas at Kalacherra, Dharmanagar in North district and at Banduar, Udaipur in Gomati district. He also mentioned about sanctioning of 4 new integrated B.Ed colleges in the State, including one for the women exclusively, to increase the training capacity. This would enable to get adequate number of D.El.ED/B.Ed qualified candidates at the earliest in the interest of teacher education and getting the large number of vacancies filled up by qualified candidates.

The HRD Minister assured that these matters would be attended to on priority.

In his Twitter handle, Chief Minister Deb on Wednesday stated, “Had a fruitful meeting with Shri Prakash Javadekarji at his residence in New Delhi today. He assured full support from HRD Ministry for initiation of 4 new B.Ed colleges in Tripura & setting up of 2 Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), one each in Dharmanagar and Udaipur in Tripura.”

Tripura CM Biplab Kr Deb with MoS for Power RK Singh in New Delhi on August 8, 2018. Image – Northeast Now

In this meeting with the Union MoS for Power, RK Singh, the Tripura Chief Minister stated that the State Government was working with full emphasis for meeting the target of 100% electrification of all households in order to fulfil the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to have 100% coverage of electricity in the country within December this year.

Chief Minister Deb also mentioned that DPRs have already submitted and the State Government has received Rs 420 crore against proposal of Rs 756.36 crore for implementing the Saubhagya and DDUGJY schemes. The Chief Minister requested that balance funds may be released at the earliest to complete that programmes.

Informing about his meeting with Singh, Chief Minister Deb tweeted on Wednesday, “Met Shri Raj K Singh ji in New Delhi today. Tripura Government is committed towards attaining its target under Saubhagya Yojana within stipulated time. The Hon’ble Minister assured that the Ministry of Power shall extend all possible assistance in this regard.”

The CM also requested that sanction for the proposed 52753 solar connections may also be approved quickly. He mentioned that in the hilly and difficult terrain of the State stand alone solar connections would be far morepreferable then grid based connections. The CM mentioned that the cost would be almost 1/3 that of grid based connection and solar systems would be easier to install and maintain and would be less prone to transmission line related disruption.

Deb also raised the issue of the high cost of power from NTPC Bongaigaon plant. The cost of power was about Rs 8.80 per unit whereas the State was procuring power at a maximum of Rs 3.26 per unit from other sources. Herequested the Union MoS for Power to find a solution to this problem as the State could not afford such high cost of power and was also incurring crores of rupees per month as fixed charges to NTPC.

Union MoS of Power appreciated the issues raised by the CM and assured that he would have all the matters attended to in a time bound manner. He also assured that about Rs 300 crore would be released very soon forimplementation of the Saubhagya and DDUGJY Schemes in the State.

On the other hand, in the meeting with Union Health Minister JP Nadda, Chief Minister Deb discussedissues pertaining to development of health infrastructure and implementation of schemes in the State. The Union Health Minister assured that the pending matters would receive top priority by his Ministry.

The Tripura CM also met the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister to discuss few issues relating to development of State. He mentioned about the desire of the State Government to hold the 48th National Games, 2024 in the State.

The Chief Minister stated that State Government would, however, require financial support from the Central Government to upgrade and create new infrastructure to host the Games.

The CM also raised the matter about SpiceJet withdrawing its flight operation from Tripura and stated that this would cause immense hardship and suffering to the people of the State who have to depend a lot on the use of airlines to travel to and from the State. He requested that necessary intervention may be made inthis matter so that SpiceJet would revoke this move.

The Principal Secretary to Prime Minister assured that he would have the issue of SpiceJet looked into in consultation with Ministry of Civil Aviation. Regarding the National Games, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister appreciated the desire of the State Government to host such an event. He suggested that State Government maysubmit a proper proposal in this regard for consideration.

Northeast Now is a multi-app based hyper-regional bilingual news portal. Led by a group of professionals, the digital news platform covers every inch of the eight states of northeast India and the five neighbouring countries. It is the first of its kind new media initiative in the northeast, and is based in Guwahati. As the political dynamics in the northeast is intricate and fluid, Northeast Now is always politically neutral.